Historical Novel

Paperback Books

Short Stories

A Link in the Chain

Employees of a daily newspaper learn that their rich owner is planning to sell the paper to a national newspaper chain. How can they possibly come up with enough money among the employees to buy the paper and save their jobs? This story was inspired by the fact that the nation's first Employee Stock Ownership Plan, commonly known today as an ESOP, was a daily newspaper in 1956 when tax codes were interpreted to enable employees to buy a company.

A few newspaper ESOPs are still being established to prevent takeovers by large national newspaper conglomerates, and ESOPs have become more common in other types of businesses as well.